No. 4 Mica Mountain held off No. 5 Ironwood Ridge 3-1 Tuesday night at home to advance to the 4A Conference semifinal round for the second year in a row. The Thunderbolts lost to top-seed ALA-Gilbert North on the road last year but the program will host No. 8 Scottsdale Saguaro this fall after the Sabercats eliminated No. 1 Flagstaff 3-1 in  another quarter match Tuesday night.

The other semifinal features No. 3 Estrella Foothills at No. 2 Salpointe. Both semifinal matches will be played Thursday night and the championship match is listed for Saturday, Nov. 16 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum at 2:30 p.m. No word if the match will be shifted to the Tucson area if Mica Mountain and Salpointe both advance to the final.

Mica Mountain beat Ironwood Ridge 25-9 in the first set and the Bolts looked like they were going to do the same in the second set but the Nighthawks fought back from a 21-12 deficit to cut the lead down to 22-20 on a kill from Emma Klett. A service error ended the comeback and then a block from Amaris Biancuzzo led to a 25-20 victory for Mica Mountain to go up 2-0.

Ironwood Ridge took a 20-18 lead in the third set on a block from freshman Kallie George but a couple of kills from Aubrey Necas, combined with another score from Soso Okpara, helped tie the match at 21-21. George put Ironwood Ridge up 22-21 but Okpara tied it back up. A net touch violation put the Nighthawks up 23-22 and then a score put the team up 24-22. Another service error gave the Bolts some life but Lydia Litkenhus came up with a block for the 25-23 win to cut the lead down to 2-1.

The deciding set played out to 12-12 but Mica Mountain slowly built a 23-16 lead. George collected a couple of kills to help cut the lead down to 23-19 but another service error ended a comeback and Necas provided the final kill for the 25-20 win.

Ironwood Ridge beat Mica Mountain 3-2 on Oct. 10 but Mica Mountain beat Ironwood Ridge two weeks later. Mica Mountain (24-10) has won eight matches in a row and Saguaro (21-14) nine.